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[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

GAP - USA Launches Census 2001 for Nonhuman Great Apes, says "Make
injustices visible"
http://www.greatapeproject.org

Portland, OR - The United States branch of The Great Ape Project (GAP), a
group working to raise the legal and moral status of chimpanzees, goillas,
orangutans and bonobos, announced today a census of nonhuman great apes in
the United States. The Great Ape Project's "Census 2001" campaign - modeled
on the US government's Census 2000 - highlights the fact that all great
apes, human and nonhuman alike, share qualities including intelligence,
complex social systems, and the ability to suffer. For this reason, all
should be counted as individuals and recognized through a census.


Paul Waldau, GAP's Executive Director, states, "Nonhuman great apes should
be counted as individuals, just as humans are. They now suffer greatly -
chained in backyards, beaten, sold on the internet - and we must make these
injustices visible. GAP's Census 2001 goes one step beyond the US
government's Census 2000, and will call attention to the fact that there
remain many complex individuals who still need to be counted - our fellow
great apes."


GAP - USA's census will be carried out mainly by volunteers, or enumerators,
who will report information about individual nonhuman great apes across the
United States in zoos, circuses, laboratories, sanctuaries, and under
private ownership. Enumerators can submit reports directly to GAP by filling
out census forms at the Great Ape Project website at
<http://www.greatapeproject.org/census.html>.


Sarah Whitman, Campaign Director for GAP - USA's Census 2001 says, "With our
Census 2001, GAP will pick up where the US Census Bureau left off by
recognizing the nonhuman great apes. Census 2001 is one step up from Census
2000."


The Great Ape Project is an international organization working to raise the
legal and moral status of nonhuman great apes. GAP has chapters across the
globe, and supporters include famed primatologist Jane Goodall
<http://www.janegoodall.org/>.